Knee Pain Treatment in Charleston | $49 SoftWave Discovery Visit
Non-surgical knee pain treatment · Charleston, SC
Told your knee is “bone on bone”? Watch what happens in the first 10 minutes.
SoftWave is FDA-cleared acoustic wave therapy that switches off inflammation and wakes up your knee's own repair cells. No needles, no drugs, no downtime. And no waiting weeks to find out if it worked: most of my knee patients feel the difference on the table, at the very first visit.
★★★★★ 350+ five-star Google reviews · Referred by Charleston orthopedic surgeons
Claim your $49 Knee Discovery Visit
- One-on-one knee evaluation with Dr. Jimerson
- Your first full SoftWave treatment, same visit
- A written plan and exact price before you decide anything
- Feel it or it's free: no change in your knee at the first visit, and I refund the $49
We hold a limited number of Discovery Visits each week. We'll call or text within the hour during office hours to find your time. $49 is due at the visit.
The technologyThe same SoftWave device the pros are treated with
- NFL
- Denver Broncos, Philadelphia Eagles, Jacksonville Jaguars, L.A. Rams, Dallas Cowboys, Atlanta Falcons, New Orleans Saints, Pittsburgh Steelers, Miami Dolphins
- NBA
- Orlando Magic, New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers, Los Angeles Lakers, Brooklyn Nets, Sacramento Kings
- MLB
- Atlanta Braves, Arizona Diamondbacks, Chicago Cubs, Toronto Blue Jays, Cleveland Guardians, Boston Red Sox
- NHL
- Toronto Maple Leafs, Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers, Anaheim Ducks, St. Louis Blues
- Soccer & fighting
- Seattle Sounders, Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle United, UFC Performance Institute, WWE
- College
- Nebraska, Ohio State, Penn State, Georgia, Tennessee
Teams whose training and medical staffs use SoftWave technology, as reported by the manufacturer. Listed for information; no endorsement of this office is implied.
Watch it happen
These aren't testimonials read off a card. This is the moment it works.
I film first visits because nobody believes it until they see it. Bone-on-bone knees, failed surgeries, golfers who'd given up: watch their faces.
“Diagnosed with a lateral meniscus tear and surgery was recommended. After three SoftWave treatments on my knee, surgery is off the table.”Carol B. · Google review
“Avid runner with some knifing pain below my knee. Pain was there for over a week and instantly felt better after one appointment.”Cory R. · Google review
“The SoftWave treatment helped with my bone on bone knee and ankle pain.”Allan C. · patient review
Speed of results
Everything else asks you to wait. SoftWave shows you at the first visit.
Ask any knee patient what they hate most and it isn't the pain, it's the waiting: weeks to find out if a shot took, months of PT, a year to get over a replacement. Here's how long each option typically takes before you know whether it's working for you.
The Feel-It-Or-It's-Free guarantee
Speed is the whole point, so I'll put my money on it. If you don't feel a change in your knee on the table at your Discovery Visit, tell me before you leave and I'll refund the $49. No forms, no argument. You'll have lost ten minutes, nothing more. One knee, one treatment: the visit covers one area, so we can give it a fair test.
Typical time until a patient can tell whether the treatment is helping, based on published clinical timelines for each option and, for SoftWave, on what my own knee patients report at their first visit. Lasting SoftWave results build over a 4–8 week program. Individual results vary.
Who's treating you
The doctor Charleston's orthopedic surgeons send their patients to
I've spent 22 years on knees. The surgeons here know me, and when they have a patient who isn't ready for a replacement, or wants to try everything first, they send them to my office.
Referred by orthopedic surgeons. Local orthopedists refer patients to me for non-surgical knee care, and some are patients here themselves. Dr. Robert Schoderbeck, MD, a Charleston orthopedic surgeon, is one of them.
Trusted by professional athletes. I've worked with the Buffalo Bills and treated athletes on-site at Ironman triathlons. The same hands, the same machine, are what you get.
Two decades, 21,000+ patients. Active Release Techniques certified since 2004. You see me at every single visit, never an associate.
The most-watched knee treatments online. Over 500 million views of my patient videos. People fly in from other states. You can drive over from Mount Pleasant.
“I have been referring patients that have failed all other modalities (surgery, physical therapy, injections, chiropractic) for over a decade with exceptional results. It is almost like his hands are personal MRI machines. His SoftWave (shockwave) therapy is helpful to decrease inflammation and improve healing. I highly recommend Dr. Jimerson.”Dr. Robert Schoderbeck Jr., MD · Orthopedic Surgeon, Roper St. Francis · referring physician and patient
Same machine. Different hands.
There are nine SoftWave machines in Charleston now. There's one of me.
A SoftWave device doesn't know where your knee pain is coming from. The doctor holding it does, or doesn't. What sent my treatment videos to 1.6 million people isn't the machine. It's what I do before I turn it on and after I turn it off, and it's why the change shows up on camera in minutes.
Fascial release, not a wand waved over the knee
Twenty-two years of hands-on work and Active Release Techniques since 2004. I find the scarred, glued-down fascia and the tight muscle that's loading your joint the wrong way, free it by hand, and only then put the SoftWave exactly where it needs to go. A machine can be bought. That can't.
Nerve techniques you won't find in a franchise
Perpendicular nerve mobilization and cutaneous nerve tractioning: the nerves around a painful knee get stuck and keep the whole leg guarding. Free the nerve, and the muscles stop bracing, the joint moves, and the treatment lands on tissue that can actually respond.
Neurolymphatic and mirror points
The part of my videos people call witchcraft. Reflex points that keep swelling and guarding switched on, and the mirror point on the other side of the body that quiets them. It's the reason a knee can feel different before the SoftWave has even started.
Why it looks like magic on camera
It isn't the machine. It's the machine plus the hands plus the nerve work, in the right order, on the exact tissue. Take the hands away and you get a machine treatment. I've built these techniques into a method I now teach to other practitioners; you get them from the person who developed them.
The Nervanna Method is Dr. Jimerson's own clinical framework, developed over 22 years and 21,000+ patients, and taught to practitioners nationally.
Is this for you?
SoftWave is worth a look if any of these sound familiar
- You've been told “bone on bone,” osteoarthritis, or a meniscus tear, and to wait until it's bad enough to replace.
- Cortisone or gel injections helped for a while, then stopped helping.
- You're 50 or older, active, and the knee is what's keeping you off the golf course, the tennis court, or the walk around the neighborhood.
- You want to know what a non-surgical option can do before you commit to a replacement and the months of recovery that follow.
- You'd rather pay once for something that works than keep collecting co-pays for things that don't.
SoftWave is not for everyone. If your knee isn't a good fit, I'll tell you at the first visit and point you toward what is.
How SoftWave heals a knee
It doesn't mask the pain. It restarts the repair.
A cortisone shot quiets the knee for a few months and does nothing for the tissue. SoftWave sends a wave of acoustic energy 4 to 5 inches deep, and the knee responds the way it would to an injury, without the injury. Here's what the published research shows that response looks like.
1. Your own repair cells show up
Shock waves cause tissue to release signals that recruit your body's own progenitor cells (the repair crew) to the treated area. This is the part patients feel building over the weeks between visits.
Aicher A, et al. Circulation. 2006;114:2823–30.
2. New blood vessels grow
Treated tissue shows more new blood vessels and higher levels of the growth signals that build them (VEGF, eNOS). A knee with better blood supply heals; a knee without it just ages.
Wang CJ, et al. J Orthop Res. 2003;21:984–9. Holfeld J, et al. Cardiovasc Res. 2016;109:331–43.
3. Growth factors go up
Shock wave treatment raises tissue levels of TGF-β1 and IGF-1, the growth factors that drive repair of tendon, ligament and connective tissue.
Chen YJ, et al. J Orthop Res. 2004;22:854–61.
4. Inflammation switches off
The same signal that starts repair (the TLR3 pathway) dials down the chronic inflammation that keeps a knee stiff and sore. That's why the first change most people notice is the pain.
Holfeld J, et al. Cardiovasc Res. 2016;109:331–43.
In 14 randomized trials (782 knee-arthritis patients), shock wave therapy cut pain and improved function significantly more than control treatments.Avendaño-Coy J, et al. Int J Surg. 2020;82:64–75 (meta-analysis).
Head-to-head with hyaluronic acid (“gel”) injections, shock wave therapy matched the injections at 1 and 3 months, with nothing injected into the joint.Lee JK, et al. Ann Rehabil Med. 2017;41:828–35 (randomized trial).
SoftWave (OrthoGold 100) is FDA 510(k) cleared for activation of connective tissue, temporary increase in local blood circulation, and relief of minor aches and pains. Cleared, not “approved,” and I'll always say it precisely.
Not just knees
Heart surgeons now use this energy on the heart itself.
In a randomized trial published in the European Heart Journal in 2024, cardiac surgeons at the Medical University of Innsbruck applied shock wave therapy directly to damaged heart muscle during open-heart bypass surgery. A year later, the treated hearts were pumping measurably better than the untreated ones, with no safety concerns. If it can wake up heart muscle, it can wake up a knee.
The heart study, plainly
63 patients with weakened hearts, half treated with shock waves on the heart during bypass surgery, half not. After one year, heart function improved 11.3% in the treated group vs 6.3% in the untreated. That's the same acoustic-wave biology (new blood vessels, recruited repair cells) that I use on your knee.
Holfeld J, et al. CAST-HF trial. Eur Heart J. 2024;45:2634–43. Cardiac device; SoftWave is the orthopedic application of the same low-intensity shock wave science.
What else I treat with it
Shoulders (rotator cuff, frozen shoulder), hips, plantar fasciitis and heel pain, tennis and golfer's elbow, low back and sciatica, neck, Achilles, neuropathy, old surgical scars and hardware pain. If your knee is the reason you're here, we start there; most patients find another joint they want fixed once they see what happens.
The full program, no surprises
What a knee program looks like, start to finish
Most knee programs run 6 to 10 sessions over 4 to 8 weeks. Each visit is 10 to 15 minutes, in street clothes, and you drive yourself home. Here's how it unfolds.
Discovery Visit
I examine the knee, find the exact tissue driving the pain, and treat it. You'll know before you leave whether your knee responds. Then you get a written plan with the exact price. You go home and decide.
Calm it down
Two sessions a week. The inflammation drops first; most people notice they're taking stairs differently, sleeping better, thinking about the knee less.
Rebuild
Sessions space out as the repair response takes over. I add hands-on work (Active Release) where scar tissue or a tight muscle is loading the joint wrong, and you get a short home routine to protect the gains.
Re-check and release
We re-measure against your first visit: pain, range of motion, what you can do again. Most knees are done here. Some get a tune-up months later; many never need one.
What's included
| 8 SoftWave sessions (industry rate $150–$250 each) | $1,200–$2,000 |
| Two progress re-evaluations with Dr. Jimerson | $300 |
| Hands-on Active Release work as needed | $400 |
| Home protocol and direct text access to the office | included |
| Typical knee program | $1,200–$1,900 |
Exact price set at your Discovery Visit based on how many sessions your knee needs. HSA/FSA accepted. Payment plans available. Not covered by Medicare or insurance, and I'd rather you know that now.
| What people try instead | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Cortisone or gel injections, repeated over a few years | $1,500–$4,000+ |
| Knee replacement: out-of-pocket after Medicare, plus 3–6 months recovery | $3,000–$8,000+ |
Common questions
What patients ask before their first visit
Does it hurt?
You feel a tapping pulse over the knee. On the tender spots it's noticeable, and that's how I know I've found the right tissue. It's over in minutes and there's typically no soreness afterward.
How fast will I feel something?
Most of my knee patients feel a change on the table at the first visit; that's why I film them. The lasting change builds over the following weeks as the tissue repairs.
What if I don't feel anything at the first visit?
Then you're probably not a SoftWave candidate, and I'd rather you know that for $0 than find out after buying a program. Tell me before you leave and the $49 is refunded. I'll also tell you what I think would help instead. The visit is one treatment of one area (the knee you came in for), so the test is fair to both of us.
I've already had injections. Does that matter?
No. Many of my knee patients have had cortisone or gel injections. SoftWave works on the tissue differently and doesn't conflict with prior injections.
Can I still have surgery later if I want to?
Yes. SoftWave doesn't burn any bridges. Many patients use it to buy time, or to find out they don't need surgery yet. Some surgeons send patients to me for exactly that reason.
Is this PRP or a stem cell injection?
No. Nothing is injected. SoftWave uses acoustic waves to stimulate your body's own repair response. There are no drugs, needles, or biologics involved.
Why isn't it covered by insurance?
Medicare and most insurers don't yet reimburse acoustic wave therapy for knees, even though the research supports it. That's why I keep pricing simple and tell you the full number up front.
Book your $49 Knee Discovery Visit
Come find out what your knee can still do.
Fill this in and we'll call or text within the hour during office hours. Prefer to talk now? Call or text (843) 873-6004.
What happens at the visit: I examine the knee, I treat it, and I hand you a written recommendation. You go home and decide. No pressure, no sales pitch, and if you're not a candidate I'll say so.
Visit
West Ashley, ten minutes from downtown
- Address
- 761 Saint Andrews Blvd, Charleston, SC 29407
- Hours
- Mon–Fri 7:30 AM–1:00 PM, 2:00–5:00 PM
- Parking
- Free lot at the door
- Phone
- (843) 873-6004
Patients drive in from:
761 St Andrews Blvd
